It's not bad at all. It's BIS watchful unless you made a specific decision in Nemesis, and it's pretty good in Shadowy for the slot too (only outdone by a FATE item, two Ambition items, and two Sacroboscan Calendar items. Even then, the only competitors for +2 are another Ambition item and an incredibly lategame, incredibly difficult Upper River item.) Affiliation is not a high-stat slot; literally only two items go above +5 in the four main qualities and both are Ambition locked.